The large-scale costumes in 'Monsters, Inc.' were a big design project

By Peggy ScottJanuary 27, 2005

Feld Entertainment

The skaters inside the Mike Wazowski (the green one) and Sulley suits have to be monstrously talented.

Scott Lane has created a monster – 87 of them, in fact. And his creatures feature some notable talents, such as being able to perform a toe loop despite not having toes but, perhaps, tentacles.

As costume designer for Disney On Ice's "Monsters, Inc.," Lane faced a daunting task – bring to life the well-known residents of Monstropolis for a live-action show, but make sure the gargantuan getups allowed the performers to get up and go during some pretty strenuous skating sequences.

The show runs Feb. 2-6 at the Sports Arena. The whole gang is here – Mike, Sulley, Boo, even Mr. Waternoose and Randall – and they're all in fine skating form. Who would have thought Sulley could execute a sit-spin? Lane did, because when he literally went back to the drawing board to re-create these monsters, he had to have an "active" imagination.

"I just kept sketching. I tried to think about how much movement we could give them," Lane said. "Sketches had to be adapted. The skaters had to be able to move their arms, for example." Movement can be difficult in these large-scale costumes.

It was a big project to design costumes that could be seen from every seat in the house (Sulley is 9 feet tall, Mr. Waternoose is 12 feet across) but weren't too cumbersome. In order to allow the kind of movement necessary to skate a whole performance, Lane obviously didn't use the kitchen sink, but came pretty close. The various costumes are made from nine kinds of foam, hand-painted fabrics, "anything that stretches" and even clothes dryer hoses and plastic salad bowls. Besides looking good and moving at least reasonably well, the costumes had to be sturdy.

"The costumes have to be able to take a beating. The skaters are skating 25 miles an hour, and those (sewn-on) warts and bumps have to stay put during spins," Lane said.

Along with spinning and other skating essentials, audiences can expect a good dose of "Monsters"-style mayhem. The ice arena has been transformed into the story's "scream-processing" plant, complete with worker monsters, CDA (Child Detection Agency) crew and, of course, more than 50 closet doors – the key element in a child-scaring operation. As countless kids and just about any parent with a DVD can recite by heart, little Boo uses one of those doors to leave her world and enter Monstropolis – and the lives of James P. Sullivan (Sulley) and his cyclopic chum, Mike.

Fans of the "Monsters, Inc." film won't be disappointed, as the ice show is remarkably faithful to the story, but adds elements designed to please skating enthusiasts. Musical numbers offer many opportunities for ice dancing, including the mambo and a kick line performed by a 10-legged creature. A fantasy sequence provides "human" skating exhibitions, complete with routines full of the characteristic jumps, throws and catches. Lane worked closely with choreographer Barry Lather to blend fantasy and function. "I put the choreographer in a few costumes to see if he could move in them," Lane said.

As audiences enjoy seeing familiar faces like Sulley, Mike, Boo, Celia and others, they can also meet some newcomers who hail from Lane's imagination.

"In the Harryhausen's (Sushi Bar) scene, there's a band that I got to create from scratch," Lane said. "It has an Elvis-like singer."

Lane said he knew it was a big responsibility to try to represent characters that audiences knew so well. A little creative license will not go unnoticed.

"My assistant's daughter read me the riot act because a character was golden-orange instead of green," Lane said. "I wanted Mike, who's green, to stand out, so I made this other (character) orange. She tells me 'Charlie is not orange. He's green!' "